By SHERRI KOLADE
Times-Herald Newspapers
HEIGHTS — A Dearborn Heights man was sentenced to spend no less than 46 years in prison for the 2004 murder of a Dearborn woman, the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office announced April 23.

Oussama Talal Othamn was convicted of second degree murder for the March 26, 2004 homicide of 43-year-old Dearborn resident Margaret Sheppard Webb and for setting her body on fire.

Third District Circuit Court Judge Craig Strong sentenced Othman to 46 years and 10 months to 100 years for the murder.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy charged Othman in July 2011 with first-degree murder which carries a maximum term of life in prison and no parole.

Othman was found guilty on March 27, 2012.

According to a press release issued by the Wayne County Prosecutor’s office, in July 2011, Sheppard Webb’s body was discovered in the in the 2800 block of Scotten in Detroit; she suffered severe head trauma and her body was burned.

Gina Pineda, a DNA consultant at Louisiana-based DNA lab GMP Forensic Consultnats, LLC, testified by telephone in November 2011, that the results of a saliva test on Sheppard Webb in May 2007 revealed that a man came into contact with her before she died.

The test, Pineda said, revealed a genetic marker ideniftyng a man’s chromosomes was found on Shepphard Webb’s body.